Nickname: Rebel

Contents

Bio

Founded Summer 2001 in Albany, New York by members of Brown Cuts Neighbors, Bone Oil, Burnt Hills and Lincoln Money Shot as a post-punk party band that played mainly around RPI/Troy/Albany, New York. Much of the early songs were carried over from the previous group with some shared personnel 'Krebstar'. nickname: Rebel relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009. Currently the group is solely operated by the two founding members. nickname: Rebel primarily releases music through the Wow Cool label.

The name of the band was inspired by a wallet photo discovered in the possessions of one of the members' mothers. Hand written on the back in pencil at some point in the mid-20th century were the words 'nickname: Rebel'. Like the un-named individual in the photo, we were inspired by the juvenile delinquent exploitation media of that era, such as Rebel Without A Cause and West Side Story. The name is also a nod to the enormous influence that dub music has on our sound with its deep bass and drawn out sonics. Jamaican and British groups such as Creation Rebel, New Age Steppers and others associated with Adrian Sherwood and On U Sound deeply informed our audio aesthetic. There is also a desire to re-claim that powerful word from those who would like to keep it aligned to poisonous and hateful ideologies that are best left in the mid-19th century.